Most Discussed

The company taught people how they could create wealth through buying property

Banks are slashing fixed rates in a bid to kick-start the sluggish credit market and Westpac’s Tony MacRae tells Broker TV the bank’s recently announced two-year fixed rate of 4.99% has attracted lots of attention.

“Our BDM’s have been absolutely inundated with enquiries from mortgage brokers and our local mortgage broker squads have been out there proactively phoning and emailing their broker relationships to let them know about the…offer. In addition, we’ve just recently announced that we’re also dropping our three-year rate to 5.29% under our Premium Advantage package.”

The comments come as ME Bank announced it has cut its three-year fixed rate to 4.99%. The bank's CEO, Jamie McPhee, predicted that the RBA's cutting cycle may be reaching a floor, meaning borrowers should be looking to fix.

"It won't get much better than this," McPhee said.

McPhee said the three-year rate bests those offered by any other lender in the market. But MacRae says being competitive in the market doesn’t begin and end with low-cost loans.

“I think it’s short-sighted for any lender to rely on either fixed or variable rates to run their business. As they say: Win on rate, lose on rate.”

MacRae says mortgage brokers want great service as well as good products.

“That can come in the form of exceptional relationships, great turn-around time, tools, technology, all of those sorts of things. We believe that what differentiates ourselves - and will differentiate brokers in the market place - is being able to add value to their business.”